The honeymoon is over. Let the honeymoon begin.

According to the weekend’s headlines here in France, the country’s love affair with its president, Nicolas Sarkozy, may be on the downturn, but his own affairs of the heart could see him about to trundle up the aisle once again.

Tumbling seven points in the latest opinion polls Sarkozy has dropped below the 50 per cent approval rating for the first time since he came to office in May last year.

While a majority of those questioned – 48 per cent - gave the president the thumbs up for his work so far, 45 per cent said they were dissatisfied.

No cause for immediate concern perhaps, but a notable dip from just a month ago when the balance was 55-38 and a whopping 17 per cent drop in approval ratings from the halcyon days of last July.

If anything is to be read into the latest figures – and plenty will be over the next couple of days – then on the professional front, December wasn’t really Sarkozy’s month.

He took an awful lot of flak for his handling of the controversial visit of the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, and came under fire for his inability to deliver on his major campaign promise to increase purchasing power – beyond repeating his stock answer “work more to earn more.”

And then of course there was the manipulated over-exposure of his personal life with the first public outing of Sarkozy and Carla Bruni in EuroDisney – of all places.

At a press conference this Tuesday he is likely to face some uncomfortably direct questioning on the (slow) pace of reform and especially where that increase in purchasing power is going to come from. Unemployment, pensions, labour relations and speculation on a ministerial reshuffle are also likely to be topics on which he will be grilled, especially as there are local elections due at the beginning of March.

But the burning question on everybody’s lips, and the issue in which the French are least interested apparently, even though it has been splashed across the media this weekend, is whether presidential wedding bells can be expected any time soon.

As yet, Sarkozy has shied away from making an “official” statement about his relationship with the former top model-turned-chanteuse. But after very public, private holidays in recent weeks, it’ll be hard for the president to avoid any mention of it – especially of he is asked.

And if the headline in the French national Sunday newspaper, “Le Journal du Dimanche” is anything to go by, a date has definitely been set for the pair to tie the knot….. apparently. “It’s February 8,” claims the newspaper. “Or most likely February 9,” it adds, wisely hedging its bets.

More speculation perhaps but it has been backed up by Bruni’s Italian mother, Marisa Borini, who told her country’s media a couple of weeks ago that Sarkozy had indeed already popped the question to her daughter.

One undeniable truth though in the romance has been its whirlwind nature, entirely in keeping with a president who has the habit of firing on all fronts simultaneously. Since their Disney appearance the sweethearts have been virtually inseparable, following up a Christmas break in Egypt with a quick trip to Jordan last week.

Bruni as First Lady at the Elysée palace would certainly help the president out in terms of protocol. State visits to Morocco and the United States saw him having to drag long one of his women ministers (usually Rachida Dati) to official functions.

And even combining political duties during his primarily private Yuletide trip to Egypt presented some tricky etiquette manoeuvring. As Madame Sarkozy (part III) Bruni would also have an official role – one that Cecilia (part II) was unwilling to assume.

Oh yes – and here’s a Twilight Zone-type twist of coincidence. Or is it?

Open talk of an impending Sarkozy-Bruni marriage has ratcheted up a gear since the sun-glassed couple were photographed each holding a hand of the “singer’s” young son, Aurélian, as they strolled happily along the streets of Petra, Jordan.

Exactly the same destination to which Cecilia, very publicly fled for a liaison with her amour, French advertising hotshot, Richard Attias, back in May 2005 – an act which marked the beginning of the end for her and Nicolas.

Mere coincidence?

“Deedle, deedle, deedle, deedle.”

Persiflage

And wallop goes another French tradition

Oh dear. The New Year has not got off to a great start here in France. First there was the apparent challenge to the country’s café culture with the introduction of the smoking ban in public places and now another Gallic bastion has bitten the dust with the cancellation of the Dakar rally.

Mind you, the former Paris-Dakar as was, and then from 2002 consecutively and confusingly Arras, Marseille, Clermont-Ferrand, Barcelona and two times Lisbon – Dakar, only dates back to 1979 so has far less to do with the traditional image of France than the Evil Weed.

The annual race across the desert was abandoned just a day before it was due to start after the French foreign ministry advised against tourists travelling to Mauritania. That warning followed the murder there on Christmas Eve of four French tourists.

As 15 of the eight stages were due to pass through Mauritania plus a rest day in the capital Nouakchott, it seems that wisdom has prevailed. Organisers also reported that direct threats had been made against the race itself. The security of the participants, hoards of journalists and team technicians had been paramount, they said, in their heeding the French government’s advice to call the whole thing off.

The rally has had scheduling problems in the past. Two stages were dropped last year because of terrorist threats. And in 2000 and 2006 organisers arranged for the rally to rerouted to avoid the North of Mali and Niger.

But it’s the first time in its relatively short history that the Dakar will not take place at all.

Of course not everyone thinks that it’s much of a loss that there’ll be no fume-belching vehicles careering though some of the poorest parts of Africa.

Critics – and there are plenty of them – accuse the rally of being a mere circus reserved for the rich. A sort of off-road version of Formula 1 with cars, motorbikes and trucks criss-crossing their way across the desert dunes, while a collection of jet setters including singers, actors and models “helicopter” in their wake.

Just take a moment though to think about what we’ll all be missing this year.

First up of course is the impact on the poor old environment. No rally means no desert dust will be thrown up by those 500 or so gas guzzlers and there’ll be no accompanying convoy of fuel, food and water to sustain the competitors while locals look on. Those same locals also won’t be able to complain about their livestock being hit or killed in accidents.

And while on the subject, no rally also means no chance to add to the death toll – currently put at 48 over the years according to organisers’ figures. That number includes at least 17 locals and 25 competitors, as well as the rally’s founder Thierry Sabine.


Thankfully though the organisers have reassured everyone that this year’s abandonment doesn’t mean the end of the rally. Apparently it is a “symbol that cannot be destroyed” even if terrorist threats seem to have done a pretty good job of it this time around.

But just how much of a symbol it is, was perhaps summed up by – of all things - the Vatican’s official newspaper last year, which described the event as “a bloody, irresponsible, violent and cynical attempt to impose questionable Western tastes on the developing world.”

Anybody want to second that?

Persiflage

Pay more to say less

There were several firsts when France’s Nicolas Sarkozy made the annual New Year’s presidential address to the nation on Monday evening.

To start with of course, it was his first since taking office as the country’s head honcho. And never one to miss a show-stopping opportunity, Sarkozy also went “live” rather than opting for the traditional pre-recorded “Blessing” as his predecessors had done.

Ever the Action Man, he delivered his eight-minutes worth at breakneck speed which might have left many viewers bewildered and the poor dear signing for the deaf and hard of hearing (another first) rather limp wrested.

So what did the Omnipresent One manage to pack into his speech? Well very little if the general reaction of the press and public is anything to go by.

There was basically a minute of backslapping self-praise for each of his months in power with some stage-managed humility in admitting that he had perhaps made a few mistakes along the way, but not outlining what they might have been.

They may have included shying away from the cameras on board a luxury boat just after the elections with his oh-so-faithful wife; Or allowing a rich French industrialist to pick up the tab for his two-week summer holiday in United States; Or his five-star Christmas break with the latest love of his life, Carla Bruni, as they strolled hand in hand from a borrowed private jet; Or the 172 per cent pay rise he allowed himself to be awarded in the autumn.

All of course ensured circulation figures for the weekly glossies, but hardly appropriate even for a Bling Bling president who demands all round belt tightening and steadfastly refuses to increase the minimum wage for those at the other end of the income scale.

Or maybe he was referring to his astonishing reinterpretation of the morality of foreign policy and the fundamental need to ignore respect for human rights as he signed billion Euro deals with Beijing and Tripoli.

Hard to know really what Sarkozy meant by mistakes, as he is unlikely to put himself in a position to be asked directly.

Be that as it may his Sarkozy’s speech also gave him the chance to prove himself as much a master of the political phrase as previous French presidents by maintaining (just as Jacques Chirac had done) “not everything could be resolved in one day”.

But he stressed his sincerity and honesty in serving the nation – just the words to console anyone when heard dropping from a politician’s mouth.

Last year had been, he declared, one of “Urgency” when reforms that had been hanging around for several decades were forced through. Phase two, beginning January 1, would herald the beginning of a period when the impact of those changes SHOULD make themselves felt. Rather too heavy on the conditional tense for many.

He was silent over his failure so far to deliver on the campaigning promise of increasing purchasing power. Instead there was the guarantee that 2008 would witness the continuing break with the past and even more far- reaching political changes (poaching more opposition politicians) that would touch the very core of French society and culture, values and identity.

Apparently this was all the sort of stuff that went down well with focus groups during pre-presidential election campaigning. Obviously Sarkozy’s well-oiled political machine has its eyes on March’s local elections.

And the cost for all this bonhomie as the country swings into the New Year? A paltry €72,000 – for just eight minutes. A bargain really and only seven times more than the cost for Chirac’s speech at the same time last year.

As the television rights were bought by France 2, the country’s public broadcaster, it meant in effect the taxpayers were coughing up to be told what they already knew.

Perhaps it really was Sarkozy at his best as he transposed his oft-chanted mantra “Work more to earn more” into “Pay more to say less”.

Happy New Year.

Persiflage